Professor Stan Skafidas

Research Interests

Antenna technology

Medical Biotechnology Diagnostics

Medical Devices

Microelectronics and Integrated Circuits

Nanoelectronics

Biography

Professor Stan Skafidas, from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, leads the Melbourne School of Engineering's research in nanoelectronics and is the Director for Centre for Neural Engineering.

Professor Skafidas received a PhD from The University of Melbourne in 1997. Before joining NICTA in 2004, he was Chief Technology Officer at Bandspeed (1998-2004), a company he cofounded, based in Austin Texas, which designed and manufactured semiconductor products for enterprise class wireless systems. At Bandspeed, Professor Skafidas co-invented Adaptive Frequency Hopping – an important standard component in Bluetooth devices. This technology has been incorporated in every Bluetooth product since ver 1.2. In 2014 alone, there were over 3 Billion devices sold incorporating this technology. Bandspeed was acquired by Broadcom

In 2008 a team led by Professor Skafidas developed the world's first completely integrated 60GHz transceiver on CMOS. A single chip wireless system that is able to deliver 5Gbps data rate at cost of approximately $1 whilst being only 5mm x 5mm in size. Professor Skafidas co-founded Nitero, the spin out company to commercialise this technology. Nitero received investment from leading venture funds such as Southern Cross Ventures and Austin Ventures. The technology and products based on this technology were the recipient of multiple industry awards including the 2015 CES Innovation award. The CES Innovation Awards is the premier international annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products. Today this technology and chipsets is enabling wireless virtual reality headsets and systems. In March 2017 Nitero was acquired by technology multinational Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

In 2010 Professor Skafidas joined the University of Melbourne. In 2011 Professor Skafidas was appointed the Director of the Centre for Neural Engineering.

In November 2012, Professor Skafidas was elected as a Fellow to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE). Professor Skafidas is recognised for his vision, leadership and major technical accomplishments in industry, research institutions, academia and international standardisation committees. Adaptive frequency-hopping technology that he developed now forms a critical part of the Bluetooth standard and has been incorporated in several billion devices. His research in nano-electronics has advanced the disciplines of wireless communications, single chip radars and medical diagnostic systems.